


Listen to Your Heart

by Gingerstorm101



Category: NCIS
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Paris - Freeform, Post-Episode: s13e24 Family First
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-02
Updated: 2018-08-02
Packaged: 2019-06-20 11:39:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15533421
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gingerstorm101/pseuds/Gingerstorm101
Summary: What happened to Ziva after she sent her daughter to DC?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Song paring: Listen to you heart by Roxette
> 
> Enjoy!

She watched the airplane take off from the tarmac, tears pouring down her face as she says her final goodbyes to him. Her lover. Her everything. But his life was back there, in DC where they had first met, all those years ago, not here in Israel. That was her home, or at least it use to be, and will once again. But she couldn’t stay here any longer, not with what she had done. And now, after what she had done with him, if she ever went back there, to that job, she wouldn’t be able to go back to how they use to be, when they were just partners.

And she could definitely not go back to that, not after his months long stay at her farm house. She can never forget the way he makes her feel. Going back to work, being with him everyday and not being allowed to touch him, so she made that final decision to not go back to America. To stay in the house her father left her; where she was born.

It was the hardest decision she had ever had to make.

That was over two years ago.

Her house is gone. He is gone. Their daughter is gone. And here she is, alone, with her cellphone in her hand. Fifteen missed calls, from him. No one else, just him. By now she bets that he had met their daughter and he had been attempting fate by calling her, even after claiming on the news that she is dead. And it breaks her heart every time she has to let it ring. Oh, she wants to answer him, she wants to hear his voice again. She wants to talk to her baby girl again. She’s never gone this long without being with her little one.

Her heart screams at her to go to him, to fly to Washington and pull him into a hug and kiss, and never let go. But she knew she couldn’t do that, they would know she would go there, to him. She has a different plan, anyways. She has had it since she packed that picture in their daughter’s diaper bag; to Paris, she had always loved Paris. She just hopes he gets the hint.

Her cell rings again as she’s heading out the door of the hotel room. Her thumb hovers over the green button before she regrettably removes it from the screen; she lets it go to voicemail. With a sigh, she makes her way out of the hotel, and soon, out of the country.

She rests her head against the wall of the plane as it takes off of the desert ground. Her phone has rang twice since she was in the airport, and this is the first time it’s been silent for so long, now that it was on airplane mode. Each time he has called her, she has come closer to answering, going against Orli’s wishes. But she has to stay strong, she’ll see them soon.

Five hours pass a lot quicker than she expects. Her book is finished and she couldn’t help but think of him,  _ The Little Prince _ , over the past couple years, when she was feeling particularly lonely, she plays the old movie, to the point where she can quote along with the added lines of the movie. She only wishes she had decided to pack her laptop in her carry-on so she could watch it.

The air is warm in Paris for the nice May weather. Flashes of the last time she was in the city comes to her quickly. The hotel, restaurant, the cafe, anything that holds a memory to her. Without a second thought, she heads to the hotel she has booked and drops off her luggage before heading to the little cafe on the corner.

Her phone rings again before she makes it to the cafe, keeping to herself, she again doesn’t answer it. However, when she arrives and orders her coffee, she pulls it out and dials her voicemail to listen to the messages he has left her.

_ “Ziva… W-why didn’t you tell me? You could’ve called.” _

He was upset, and rightly so. She knew she shouldn’t have kept it from him, and she regrets ever hiding her pregnancy and daughter from him. She had spent every moment of her pregnancy with him on her mind, scared of what he would say if she told him. Worried that he might not even want their daughter, even if her anxiety was far fetched, it had kept her from telling him. Even the fear of him quitting his job and and coming to her was something she wouldn’t wish him to ever do. She knows he’d drop everything for her.

_ “There is so much that I have missed, please tell me, why?” _

She was just trying to keep him safe, but in the end, she just broke his heart, she can hear it in his voice. Now look where it got her. Her home was gone, she and her daughter were in danger, and he believed her to be dead.

_ “Ziva, we got the guy who did it, you’re safe.” _

That was a relief. She didn’t have to hide anymore. She can prove to him that she is in fact, still alive. She can finally go to him, and they can be happy together for the first time since he stayed with her. That time alone, they were free to do as they pleased, and it resulted in a beautiful baby girl. And now they were free to be at peace again.

_ “Tim and Jimmy have been fawning over Tali since she got here, they hate to see us go.” _

Her eyes starts to tear up. She wishes she could have taken her daughter to see her friends in person. Something which she had been thinking of doing many times since her baby girl was born. Showing Gibbs that he does have a grandchild, her friends that they do have a niece. But she didn’t, she stayed in hiding where she thought they were safe from the dangers of the outside world. Now it was her daughter’s father who had to introduce her to her extended family, she just hopes that the little girl understands what was going on.

_ “Dad is happy to finally have a grandchild, he wants to come with us, but I told him no.” _

She only wishes her own father had gotten to meet and dot on her daughter too. But she was grateful that Senior was able to meet her, someone he can start anew with, someone who doesn’t know his past mistakes. She had told her daughter about her grandfather, but kept his mistakes to herself. She would rather have her daughter see him as a hero than a cunning con-man.

_ “Well, we’ve booked our flight out, we’ll see you when we see you.” _

That last message was sent nearly eight hours before, meaning that they should be arriving anytime now. Sipping her coffee, she stares down at her phone on the table. She wasn’t so sure if he was going to call her again or if he was going against the odds and just showing up to the cafe. It would probably be safer for her if he just shows up in front of her. She doesn’t know what she’d say if she had to suddenly hear his voice again. After all these years, his voice still made her weak in the knees. 

Around her, voices mingles into one, French layered over each other, very few other languages mixed in, but one stood out.  _ Hebrew. _ She looks up hastily, searching for the voice. Someone was speaking it not to far away.  _ “Aba, where is Ima?” _ The reply that came was broken, as if he didn’t speak hebrew all the time, but practiced it every so often.

_ “Soon, baby.” _

That voice.

Her heart stops.

Her phone rings.

Looking down at the phone in front of her, she reads the name. It’s him. She lets it ring for a few moments, taking the time to calm her racing heart, before she answers it.

“T-Tony?”

He didn’t answer her, but in the crowd, he waves to her, he walks up to her, her daughter balanced on his shoulders. There is was, after all these years apart, he was here in front of her. Was this a dream? I must be. She pinches her wrist, She’s really awake, this is really happening.

Before she knows it, he’s standing in front of her, towering over her and the table. “Ziva.” He sighs, a smile growing on his face.

“Ima!” Their daughter giggles from her perch, her arms stretched towards her.

She gets up from the table, her eyes never leaving his, and walks into his arms.

“You knew to come.” She whispers, staring into his eyes, tears glistening in the sunlight.

He was quiet for a moment, leaning in for a kiss. “I listened to my heart.” He closes the gap and presses his lips against hers.


	2. Chapter 2

One month, that’s all they stayed there in Paris for. The small family had reunited again in the city, and they couldn’t be happier. They were for the first time, a family. And it made her proud. He had lost so much time with them when she was staying in Israel. During their time there, they had seen the sites once again, this time he took photos that had people in them, of the three of them. His SD card had gotten full quickly, that he had to buy another one after a couple weeks of being in the country.

“I want to cherish these moments, keep the memories safe.” He had said when they were curled up in bed together one night after a couple weeks.

Just before that, he had mailed home a photo of the three of them to Gibbs. The photo never gave away where they are staying, but it signed two little words on it:  _ ‘My Family’ _ .

Now it was time to go home, to America, as much to his and their daughter’s dismay. She did try to explain to the two of them that their vacation couldn’t last forever. She, herself, didn’t want the vacation to end either, but as much as her father’s inheritance left her, it couldn’t last her a lifetime if she spent it on a hotel room. But all in all, it was time to go home.

_ Home. _ To D.C., where she hasn’t been in three years now. To the life she had left behind. But it’ll be good to see her friends again, she left them without a goodbye, and honestly, she didn’t expect to stay in her birthplace for so long. But the circumstances left her with no other choice. She had been scared for her life, and the life of her friends, and here she was, packing her bag to go back and see them.

Well, maybe not so quickly. She wants to relax first.

“Are you ready?” He asks her, their daughter dancing around his feet as he walks into the bedroom.

She looks around at the clean white room. For a whole month this has been her home. “Yes, I am ready.” She makes out, just barely, as a tear starts to form in her right eye, brushing it away, she picks up her carry-on, makes do to grab her daughter’s hand, and heads to the front door.

***

Their daughter was tucked away in his arms when they walk out of the airport and she waves down a taxi to take them home, to his apartment. “It’s probably covered in dust by now.” He says on their way to the building. “I told Dad, I didn’t know how long we would be gone for, but I did call him before we took off.”

She looks up at him and smiles. She knew he was nervous to be back in the states, not for him, but for her. She knew she should be more nervous than she was feeling, that seeing her friend’s after so long was a lot to take in, but in all honesty, she felt fine. There was no problems with her crossing the border into the states, she had a dual citizenship, so she was free to come and go as she pleases. She had time before she needs to see her friends, it’s been three years already, what was a few more days?

The apartment was clean when they arrived, as if someone had came in and dusted when they came to feed the fish while he was gone. “Couldn’t have been Dad, he was never one for housework.” He commented off handedly, taking the luggage to the living room to sort out. She took their daughter to his bedroom for a nap, noticing that there was now a large queen size bed in place of the old single. After getting their daughter settled, she questions him about it. “Oh, yeah.” He makes a pinched expression. “Had to get rid of it after dad did…  _ that _ with the neighbour.” He shakes his head. “I was not sleeping in my bed after that. No-sir-e.” He laughs awkwardly.

“It’s a change for the better, Tony.” She whispers. “I can actually sleep next to you at night here, instead of sleeping on the couch with Tali.” Something she had been worrying, knowing that he only had a single bed in the apartment the last time she was over. After sleeping next to each other for an entire month, it would have been hard to adjust.

“Ziva,” His voice brings her out of her musing. “We need to get a bigger place.” She looks around the white apartment, nodding. This was no place for a toddler, nor a growing family. That is if he still wants their family to grow.

“I know.” For now, the little girl will have to sleep on the couch until they can get her a toddler bed from the store. Together, the two of them sorts the laundry, basking in the quietness of the apartment, not speaking as they folded their laundry and got the apartment ready to be lived in again. She even pulls out her phone and starts to look for houses to see what prices they were looking at.

An hour passes quickly, and the patter of little feet makes their way into the living room, where all the laundry was put away. “Ima?” The little girl asks, her mouth making a little pout, her curls framing her face.

She smiles to her daughter. “Yes, Talia?” Her accent thick as her daughter’s name rolls off her tongue.

The little girl batted her large brown eyes at her mother, leaning into her.  _ “Go play?” _ She says in Hebrew, comfortable in her birthplace tongue. Beside her, her lover smiles, understanding the meaning behind the foreign language.

“You can take her to the park down the street, Ziva. I’m going to call Dad to let him know he doesn’t need to come over to feed my fish tonight. Maybe order some Chinese for dinner.” She smiles brightly, she hasn’t had the Asian food since she left D.C. He returns the smile, and pulls her hand into his lap, squeezing it.

She leans in to give him a small kiss before standing up. “Ok,  _ baby girl _ ,” She says, mixing her tongues. “Let us get you to the park.” The little girl squeals in response, bouncing around the room.

***

He answers the phone without thinking. “DiNozzo.”

“You home yet?” Came a rough, tired voice.

He rubs his eyes, looking over at the clock: 5pm. “Hey boss.” He replies, placing the takeout menus on the coffee table in front of him. “Yeah, we just got home this afternoon, we are going to spend the day relaxing before we announced our arrival.” He explains to the older man. “Any reason you’re calling, boss?”

The line was silence for a few moments before the man spoke up. “Yeah, yeah,” He pauses again, taking longer before he speaks up. “I’m retiring.”

He froze in his seat. “Oh no, is it serious?”

“I’m not dying DiNozzo.” He heard him catch his breath over the phone. “I can’t keep up anymore, and I won’t be able to do desk duty for the rest of my days. So, I’m retiring.” He sounded more tired now than he has in the last year. He had forgotten how old his boss really was, he was always so active.

“You sure it’s nothing, boss?”

“DiNozzo, I don’t see how that is any of your business.” There was a sigh over the phone, he knew not to say anymore. “My knees have gotten worse, doctors says I have Stage 3  Osteoarthritis,” His boss tells him. “and it’s getting closer to becoming Stage 4.”

He feels sorry for the man, he has had knee problems for as long as he has known him. He’s surprised that it has taken so long before it had became this bad. But he understands that it’s time. The man was nearly 65 years old, and if he is having knee pain, he would be no help to the team, even as a leader. He agrees, it’s time for the boss-man to retire.

“Ziva and I will bring Tali over to the office in a couple days to celebrate your retirement. We’re, ah, we’re going to rest for the night.” His boss didn’t say anything. “Well, goodnight boss.”

“Goodnight Tony.”

***

She couldn’t sleep. Anticipation ran through her veins as she lays in bed beside her… partner? Lover? Boyfriend? It didn’t feel right. He has been her partner is every which way for a long time. But he wasn’t anything more, at least not currently. Not that it wasn’t something she didn’t want, she definitely wants to be something more with him. But in time. She guess that he’ll just be her partner until that day.

“Ziva?” He groans, rolling over in their bed. “I can hear you thinking.” He wraps his arms around her waist and burying his nose in her hair. “Tell me what’s on your mind.”

She relaxes in his arms, letting out a deep sigh. “Well, for starters Tony, we need to buy a house.” He runs his fingers up and down her inner forearm. He nods against her, his nose being tickled by her hair. “The bank might not let us get a mortgage, even with our savings, so one of us might need a job.”

“I could always get a desk job, keep out of the field, stay safe?”

“Are you sure?”

He presses a kiss to her hair. “I was getting antsy without a job to do near the end of our trip.” He pauses. “You can continue to stay home with Tali, if you wish.”

“I will think about it.”

“Okay honey.” He kisses her hair again, and pulls her tight against his chest. She took in his comfort, she let out a final sigh before settling in to her bed and finally falling asleep.

Hours later, she was woken up by a little one crawling into her bed and poking her cheek to wake up. “Mmm.” She groans, her eyes looking for a clock that wasn’t there. Picking up her phone, she looks at the time: 6:45am. “Tali, it is too early to be awake.”

“Ima,  _ hungry. _ ” The little girl swirls her finger up and down her mother’s flesh. “Pwease?”

She looks over to her partner to find him still asleep. She couldn’t wake him, not yet. “Alright baby girl, I’m up.” Picking the little girl up, she took her to the living room. She is still baffled at how  _ clean _ everything looks, after years of him being a bachelor, she had expected unorganized colour pallet, maybe even some brown and black. But not white. Not him. Not the man that have dinner and a movie on Fridays and plays football with the boys on Saturdays. Just  _ how? _

She looks in the fridge for something to eat, knowing that anything that would be in there was everything she picked up on her way home from the park last night. “We need to do a real shopping trip, do you not think,  _ baby girl? _ ” She looks back to the little girl in question who was smiling brightly at her. She lets out a huge yawn before closing the door and opening cupboards to pull out the cereal the little girl had chosen, with her mother’s permission of course, last night. “Cereal and milk for breakfast it is, do you agree,  _ baby girl? _ ”

Breakfast was eaten and before she knew it, they had ransacked the entertainment stand for a child friendly film to watch until the final member of the family joined them. But he could sleep in if he so wishes, they are both without a job at the moment, besides, he is older than she. She had spent the last three years not working, well, traditionally speaking, she’s spent every moment with her daughter, making sure she grew up to know both of her official languages of Hebrew and English, no doubt her father will want to teach her Italian as well. As well as making sure her little one understood her colours, numbers, and all things she could think of. Too bad the toddler wasn’t all that talkative, or else she’d be a motormouth like her father.

A huge yawn is heard from the bedroom followed by the footsteps of said man walking into the living room. “What time should we head to the office?” He asks, scratching his stomach.

She gets up from the floor and walks over to her partner. “You did not sleep long.” She smiles up at him, bringing her hand up to his unshaven cheek. “As soon as you are ready to leave, but first, I am going to shower before we set off.”

He smiles. “Okay, Ziva.” He presses a kiss to her forehead. “After you.” And she walks off to get ready to meet her old coworkers.

***

She was nervous, completely nervous. She hasn’t seen her friends in so long, and showing up like this was too much. She either felt like she was going to be sick, or have a nervous breakdown. But she’ll be strong for her partner, and mostly, for her daughter. Taking a deep breath, she steps out of the elevator.

It feels like the air around her goes still and everyone stops breathing in the room.

“Ziva!” The forensic scientist screams excitedly, jumping up and down from her place beside the boss’ desk. The entire team is standing in the bullpen waiting for them to join them.

She froze, could she really do this?

Her partner places his hand on her shoulder, squeezing her a bit, sending her a silent message.  _ ‘You got this.’ _

“Ziva! Ziva! Ziva!” The excited woman exclaims, she knows the older woman is itching to run towards her. Grabbing a hold of her daughter’s hand, she walks into the bullpen seconds before being engulfed into a hug. She looks over to her old boss, not meeting his eye. She is worried that her abandonment of the team had caused the older man some pain.

“Ziver.” He gets raises from his seat and she looks down to her daughter. When she looks back up, he’s standing in front of her and pulls her into a hug. “Welcome back.”

She lets go of her daughter’s hand and hugs the man back with a sigh. “I-it’s good to be back… Jethro.” It’s been a long time since she spoke his first name, it almost felt unnatural, but it isn’t. Pulling back from the hug, she lifts her daughter to her hip. “It would like you to formally meet Talia, your granddaughter.”

He raises his hand to the little girl’s cheek, smiling to the small family. “Welcome Tali, to the family.”


End file.
